Use Your Power for Good, Mr. President

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Charlie Gard is going to die. Charlie is a baby in a children’s hospital in London who suffers from a genetic defect that has left him brain damaged. There is an experimental treatment that might save Charlie’s life, but a bureaucrat in London determined that Charlie’s life has no value. So Charlie must die.

Charlie’s parents have the money to take Charlie out of the country. In fact, they have over a million dollars to transport Charlie from England to the United States to undergo the experimental treatment that might save his life. But bureaucrats and judges in both Great Britain and the European Union determined that Charlie would still have brain damage and, therefore, would have no value to add to society. So Charlie Gard must die.

His parents want him to live. No one can ask Charlie what he wants because he is a baby. Instead of defaulting to a presumption of life, bureaucrats have defaulted to execution.

As I was in the process of tweeting yesterday that I hoped President Trump might use his Twitter profile to shed light on Charlie Gard and maybe, just maybe, cause a stay of execution, the President took to Twitter. But instead of talking about Charlie or even his party’s major policy initiatives, President Trump decided instead to attack Mika Brezenski of MSNBC. He claimed he had seen her at Mara Lago bleeding from a facelift. He attacked her as “Crazy Mika.”

Social media erupted in outrage. Republicans and Democrats alike were forceful in criticizing the President, who then abruptly did try to start tweeting about the Republican legislative agenda. But it was too late and the damage was done. The media and most of the political world spent the rest of the day replaying his attacks on Ms. Brezenski. His ardent supporters desperately tried to excuse his tweets, defend his tweets, and justify his tweets. His staff claimed that when punched, the President will punch back ten times harder.

He did. He hit himself and his agenda, putting his party and himself back on defense.

Meanwhile, Charlie Gard is dying, largely unknown and with no powerful person willing to speak up for him. What a great power President Trump has. In 140 characters he can change an entire conversation around the world. If only he used it for noble causes like defending the life of Charlie Gard, who will now die while the President feuds with a television host.